A belay device is used by a belayer in the act of belaying a climber. During general operation, the belay device is coupled to the belayer, who feeds excess rope to the climber through the belay device as the climber ascends. In the event that the climber falls, the belayer and belay device selectively hold or lock a region of the rope, thereby tensioning the rope between the belayer and climber and thus arresting the climber's fall. Belay devices are also used to lower the climber by controlling the speed at which excess rope is fed through the belay device while the rope is under tension from the climber's weight.
One type of belay device is generally referred to as a belay device with assisted braking, a self-arresting belay device, an automatic belay device, and/or an auto-locking belay device because it contains a mechanism to automatically increase the friction on the rope in the event of a climber fall. A second type of belay device is referred to as passive because it requires the belayer to manually increase the friction on the rope in the event of a climber fall. For safety reasons, an auto-locking belay device is preferred because it increases the likelihood of arresting a climber's fall despite the actions of the belayer.
One of the problems or limitations with conventional auto-locking belay devices is the ability for the belayer to defeat or disengage the auto-locking mechanism, thereby allowing the intercoupled rope to continuously feed while a climber is falling. To enable a belayer to efficiently feed rope to the climber during normal ascent, the auto-locking mechanism of any belay device must include a technique or method by which the belayer may circumvent or minimize friction upon the rope. For example, the belayer may place a portion of their hand on a particular region of the belay device so as to minimize friction and/or disengage the auto-locking mechanism while feeding rope. Unfortunately, if the climber falls while the belayer is circumventing or minimizing the auto-locking mechanism, the auto-locking mechanism may fail to engage, fail to apply sufficient friction on the rope, and therefore fail to arrest the climber's fall.
Therefore, there is a need in the industry for an auto-locking or assisted braking belay device that minimizes the ability of a belayer to defeat or disengage the auto-locking mechanism while maintaining efficient rope feeding capability.